Happy Thanksgiving!

We hosted our 3rd annual Portland Thanksgiving dinner. It has turned out to be a wonderful tradition with some of our closest friends in Portland. A few months ago, we got a new dining table with this event in mind...a table that can seat 10 people comfortably. Hope everyone is having a great Thanksgiving and is able to spend it with friends and family!
Table/group shot after round 1 of eating.
The spread. We realized that we're becoming more "mature" lately with how much more sophisticated our food gets each year we host this event.
We had some new additions to our group this year. Laura and David have become really close friends of ours. They recently had a new addition, Aiden William. Glad we could be a part of his first Thanksgiving!

Catching up over the last few weeks

Not much has been going on over the last few weeks, hence the combined blog post. I have been busy at work transitioning into my new role of Finance Manager, but have been able to squeeze a few things in after work. Last week, one of Brad's co-workers had 2 extra tickets to the Trail Blazers game against the Denver Nuggets. He is a season ticket holder, so the seats were pretty close to the court.

The Trail Blazers battling it out for a win over the Nuggets despite not having Greg Oden or Brandon Roy in the game (due to injuries).

This past Monday evening/Tuesday morning, we got some snow in Portland! It's actually just a light dusting, but nonetheless it was a snow day for schools and some companies on Tuesday. The biggest concern isn't really the snow...it's the black ice that is usually hiding underneath the snow...and Portland drivers who don't know how to drive in snow.
Dean, a friend of ours from Northwestern, came to Portland for work. We went out one evening to the Departure, the top floor of The Nines Hotel. The views were great from up there and it was a perfect night to sit outside on the balcony.

Making our home feel like home

Over the last year, we've been hanging pictures and decorating around the house to make it feel more like home. One of my favorite projects we've taken on this year is getting all of my grandfather's calligraphy and grandmother's paintings custom framed and hung throughout the house. It took the course of a year to get this accomplished because of the cost of custom framing nowadays, but it was well worth it. Below are some pics of the artwork.

Flowers in the backyard

Now that Fall is upon us, I figured now would be the time to update our blog with some pics of the flowers that bloomed in our backyard this past Summer.

Our hydrangeas starting to bloom
Brad planted several rose bushes during the Spring. They turned out gorgeous - I love my pinks :)

Frank Lloyd Wright

Last week, I had my last business trip in my Senior Business Analyst role...I have started the transition at my company to be a Finance Manager! Of course, I had to go off with a bang - so I chose to go on a work trip to Bartlesville, Oklahoma, which is about 40 min. north of Tulsa. On our flight out, we had clear skies and I was able to get a good view of Mt. Hood on the way out. Yes, there's already snow (over 30 inches now!) and one of our ski parks actually opened a few weeks ago.


Also in Bartlesville is the only skyscraper Frank Lloyd Wright ever worked on as an Architect. My coworkers had no clue who he was, but because of my roots in Chicago and an Architect brother-in-law, I was definitely soaking it in.

Part of the building has been converted to a hotel. I opted my group out of the usual Hilton hotel for a piece of history ;)